ENGineer magazine

creating a new kind of engineer.

2 Message from the Dean

Upfront

Story

message from the dean

A New Kind of Engineering School

BY DEAN KENNETH R. LUTCHEN

the national research funding agencies.

At its core, convergence engages the power of synthesizing across often disparate disciplines to accelerate impactful solutions to complex societal challenges. We have engineered our college to embrace convergence completely in our educational mission, our research mission and the way we partner with society.

Central to this approach is recognizing that critical societal challenges will not be solved by anyone trained in only a single discipline. Realizing that we can do something few other engineering schools can achieve, we reshaped our college and our processes to maximize thinking and collaboration across disciplinary boundaries, from the design of our educational programs to the ways we invest in and practice research.

We identified six convergent research themes where we can make an extraordinary impact, each of them involving expertise from multiple disciplines; you can read about some examples in the following pages. We are creating a structure that encourages diverse people to bring their individual expertise, backgrounds, perspectives, passions, skills and sensibilities to the group and craft a solution together. We are committed to a culture that embraces the concept that Great Minds Do Not Think Alike

Many of our faculty searches are recruiting talent not by department, but by a candidate’s interest in working in these convergent themes.

Welcome to the new Boston University College of Engineering.

Over the past two years, we have been engaging alumni, faculty, students, our corporate partners and all of BU as we charted our course for the next decade. What we came up with is a new—and, we believe, unique—approach that has the power to transform the way engineering is taught and practiced, and in ways desperately needed to address the complexity of solving society’s grand challenges.

Called “convergence,” this approach grew out of a concept first introduced by

Our novel educational programs will shape individuals wired for the modern world and will prioritize investments in people to enhance convergent research themes, rather than just individual silos.

We have implemented new, cuttingedge processes that are unusual for an engineering school. Many of our faculty searches are recruiting talent not by department, but by a candidate’s interest in working in these convergent themes. We are recruiting doctoral students along the same lines and establishing honorific fellowships for them aligned with these themes. At the undergraduate level, we are infusing data science throughout the curriculum for all engineering majors,

and the senior design capstone project is taking on a more convergent flavor.

Making an impact on society requires engagement with our industry partners. We have built cutting-edge, hands-on facilities for teaching and innovation in product development, robotics and healthcare, all in deep partnership with industry, to ensure that our students are maximally valuable to them right after graduation.

Featuring stories that convey all these exciting innovations, this magazine is your first look at our new college, one “Engineered for Impact” and one that will create a New Kind of Engineer

Great minds do not think alike.

Boley,

PHOTO

BY JORDAN HARTLEY;

BY CRAIG ORSINI

Each researcher in a diverse mix brings a unique perspective and way of thinking to the problem, allowing creative solutions to bubble up.

BY JACKIE RICCIARDI

A miniature replica of a heart chamber made from engineered parts and tissue from stem cells—all contained on a chip not much bigger than a postage stamp— could help researchers study disease and test new treatments.

What will it take to create personalized functional tissue patches to repair the damage from a heart attack? Or create clean, sustainable and practical energy? Or understand, and potentially treat, neurodegenerative disorders? Or transform how autonomous and robotic systems improve our quality of life?

These are among today’s most pressing societal challenges. Solutions will require expertise in several fields, and the tra ditional approach— where experts in

different fields make incremental advances independent of each other or via compart mentalized use of their existing expertise— will take a long time and may not craft the best solutions. What if you could bring those experts together and ask each to look at the problem from their individual perspectives, ideate with each other and approach it as a group in a more holistic and creative way? Such a capacity to synthe size and abstract across disciplines will result in the most robust and impactful solution and do so more quickly.

This is the concept of convergence, and it is at the core of the Boston University College of Engineering’s new approach to research and education, an approach applied at scale in a way unique among engineering schools.

Other engineering schools, both larger and smaller than BU’s, have as many as 14, often siloed, departments, where collabo ration with colleagues, recruitment of new faculty and educational innovation across departments are difficult. At BU, collabora tion has been the norm for years, supported by a leaner structure that includes just three large traditional academic departments with 45–50 faculty each, plus two divi sions that focus on cross-cutting graduate education. A culture of collaboration—both among engineers and with researchers in medicine, business and the sciences— served as a foundation supporting three pillars built to create a new kind of engineer.

Several years ago, the college built the first pillar: Creating the Societal Engineer who is committed to using the unique skills of the engineer to improve society and the human condition. Among other attributes, the Societal Engineer is trained to work and communicate in teams with people from

all backgrounds and will now also have the capacity to abstract across disciplines to develop more creative, robust and impactful approaches to societal challenges (see p. 8)

The second pillar focuses on six research themes where the college as a whole already had significant strength and where a convergent, collaborative approach is likely to be especially fruitful:

Energy, Sustainability & Climate

Intelligent, Autonomous & Secure Systems Materials by Design

Neuroengineering & Neuroscience Photonics & Optical Systems

Synthetic Biology, Tissue Engineering & Mechanobiology

Each researcher in a diverse mix brings a unique perspective and way of thinking to the problem, allowing creative solutions to bubble up. The college has transformed how to recruit faculty aligned with these themes and this way of thinking in a way not exclusively department-driven (see p. 14), and has established a structure to support collaboration that can best enhance their research careers and impact (see p. 16). The college has also designed new prestigious fellowships for PhD candidates who get degrees in specific disciplines but have the skills and desire to work on convergent research projects (see p. 8).

Education and research will not be conducted in a vacuum. The third pillar is outreach to, and involvement with, industry. Opportunities for joint research that pro duces marketable innovations will be pur sued. Additionally, industry partners inform the curriculum in three interdisciplinary teaching facilities explicitly designed to run via deep partnership with industries to produce the most relevant workforce they will need (see p. 10)

All three pillars support a new kind of engineering school that embraces the con cept that great minds do not think alike. The College of Engineering at Boston University is one that offers a path to quicker, better solutions to society’s major challenges; one that produces a new kind of collaborative and creative engineer; one that is engi neered for impact.

is the concept of convergence , and it is at the core of the Boston University College of Engineering’s new approach to research and education.

Left to right: Mo Khalil (BME), Wilson Wong (BME), Elise Morgan (ME, MSE, BME), Douglas Densmore (ECE, BME)

PHOTOGRAPH BY DANA J. QUIGLEY

Creating

Bringing various expertise together is not just for today’s research—it is also effective training for engineering students, who can learn to use it to solve societal problems now and throughout their careers. The College of Engineering is embedding this approach in our educational mission at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

For example, the undergraduate curric ulum now includes a required course in data science—which has emerged from a discreet discipline just a few years ago to one that is ubiquitous throughout engineering and elsewhere—for students in all majors.

“The era of the single-discipline engineer is over,” says Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen. “Most innovation now requires multiple engineering disciplines interact ing with large data sets. Making sure our students are literate in data analysis is fully in keeping with our mission to create Soci etal Engineers. I have heard from leaders in industry that data analysis is becoming a key attribute they are looking for when hiring engineers, and one not often found. Having this knowledge, Boston University engineers will have the tools to improve society for many years to come.”

“We are one of the first engineering schools nationally that has designed a cur riculum for which students in every major will take an interdisciplinary, data-driven approach,” Lutchen adds. “We recognize it as essential, and we are aware that in the future every engineering discipline will intersect with data science.”

For students who want to take a deeper dive, machine learning—one of four optional, interdisciplinary concen trations—is available. The three-course

sequence is designed to equip students with the skills and credential to pursue careers or graduate school in this area. Completion of the 12-credit sequence is noted on student transcripts and includes an experiential component that could be a senior design project, laboratory research, internship, directed study or another machine learning–related experience.

“Machine learning is so cross-cutting, all engineers can benefit from learning it,” says Senior Associate Dean for Academic Programs Solomon Eisenberg. “Today’s problems require many fewer silos and much more cross-disciplinary exposure and integration.”

Exposure to multiple disciplines is not limited to undergraduates. Master’s degree students in all disciplines have access to specializations in data analytics, robotics and cybersecurity. And, each year, several incoming doctoral students are identi fied for their potential to work in the six research themes and are offered fellowships they probably didn’t know existed.

“PhD students are at the heart of making discoveries,” says Associate Dean for Research & Faculty Development Elise Morgan. “We identify top candidates who have the skills in these convergent areas and nominate them for convergent fellowships.”

Although most students are not famil iar with the idea of convergent research themes, their eyes are opened when they learn about them. “When they visit, they see a good opportunity,” Morgan says. “They are often very excited.”

Although most students are not familiar with the idea of convergent research themes, their eyes are opened when they learn about them.

Building

BY JAKE

The Engineering Product Innovation Center is equipped with up-to-date industry technology, from a machine shop and foundry to 3D printers and laser cutters.

When it comes to finding a job after gradua tion, knowledge gained in the classroom and lab is, of course, critical. But

today’s employers in the rapidly advancing engineering field want more; they want the kinds of hands-on skills with the latest technologies that enable new hires to hit the ground running. The College of Engineering recognizes that need and has been building facilities that give students real-world expe riences designing and building products. What distinguishes these facilities is the role industry plays in their development.

When the Engineering Product Inno vation Center (EPIC) opened in 2014, the mission of this interdisciplinary maker space—one of the first and largest among engineering schools nationally—was largely identified by industry sponsors. This innovative model has since been used to establish two more facilities: the Bioengi neering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center (BTEC); and the forthcoming Robotics & Autonomous Systems Teaching & Innovation Center (RASTIC). Industry sponsors help support each of the facilities and, importantly, advise the college on how these facilities can be used to provide future engineers with the skills employers need.

With industry input, EPIC was designed to transform the curriculum so students learn the entire innovation process, from concept to design to production to deploy ment. Equipped with the latest industry technology, EPIC boasts a CAD studio, 3D printers, a robotic manufacturing line, a machine shop, a foundry, laser cutters and more, and is designed so equipment can be continually updated and reconfigured

within the 15,000-square-foot space. As part of the curriculum, all engineering under graduates pass through EPIC, where they learn to apply theory to real-world, often interdisciplinary, problems.

In 2020, the college adopted a similar approach when building BTEC, which advances cutting-edge technologies in the areas of molecular, cellular and tissue engineering; biosensors and instrumentation; and digital and preventive medicine. Students have the opportunity to work on projects—and be considered for internships—with partner companies that help inform the curriculum by advising on the skills bioengineers need today, and by sharing the latest information on product development and high-impact innovations.

With industry input, EPIC was designed to transform the curriculum so students learn the entire innovation process, from concept to design to production to deployment.

Building

Focused on graduate education at the master’s degree level, RASTIC is the newest industry partnership. This hands-on facility won a $4.4 million grant from Massachu setts Technology Collaborative and is now under construction. RASTIC will include a “playroom” for ground and air robots, a miniature city layout for experimenting with miniature self-driving cars, a build area, an AI space with powerful servers, and a soft robotics area. With robotics increas ingly intersecting with AI and data science, RASTIC will also take advantage of BU’s new Center for Computing & Data Sciences and is designed to help provide the work force for the burgeoning robotics industry in Massachusetts.

Dean Kenneth Lutchen said engaging industry is a central part of the college’s strategy moving forward. “We recognize the critical need to build cutting-edge facilities informed by our deep partnerships with industry to ensure that our graduates have the skills and experiences they need to thrive.”

The Bioengineering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center advances cutting-edge tech in molecular, cellular and tissue engineering; biosensors and instrumentation; and digital and preventive medicine.

BOTTOM, PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS MCINTOSH

Dean Kenneth Lutchen said engaging industry is a central part of the college’s strategy moving forward.

Building

BU has avoided a siloed culture by keeping administrative barriers to collaboration low and encouraging convergent research.

If you want to harness the power of having faculty from multiple disci plines address a societal challenge, you have to make it easy for them to do so. Cross-disciplinary collab oration has long been part of the college’s DNA, and that culture is now being formalized in a way that is unlike any other engineering school.

For the last two years, the college has recruited roughly half of its new faculty according to their alignment with an identi fied research theme, rather than to individ ual academic departments. These faculty expect, and are expected, to collaborate meaningfully with research colleagues over multiple disciplines.

Having all faculty recruited to individ ual departments—the traditional model at virtually every engineering school—often results in a siloed culture, where interde partmental research is not the norm and can be difficult. Historically, BU has avoided that by keeping administrative barriers to collaboration low and encouraging such research, and the University is now making that approach integral to faculty hiring.

“We’re hiring early career faculty differently from what we’ve done before and from what anyone else has done,” says Elise Morgan, associate dean for research and faculty development and the Maysarah K. Sukkar Professor of Engineering Design and Innovation. “We’re not funneling our thinking or faculty candidates through any particular department. We’re leveraging our strengths by looking for the most out standing postgraduate and senior graduate students whose research aligns with the themes we’ve identified and relates to mul tiple departments.”

The approach has wide support from existing faculty and has been eye-opening

for faculty candidates, many of whom have been proactively identified and invited to interview; typically, they have self-selected to apply for positions in traditional depart ments.

“They are intrigued by this approach and excited by it,” Morgan says. “The top candidates hadn’t known about these kinds of searches.”

The advantage to young faculty mem bers is the opportunity to make a mark on their field years earlier than the traditional system typically allows. “It enables people to do the scholarship they want to do and amplify the impact their scholarship can have,” Morgan notes.

The approach has transformative potential for the college’s long-term future as well. “It cultivates a sense of excitement around growth in that research area,” Mor gan says. “And it creates the conditions that allow the next set of convergent research areas to bubble up, by building connections among diverse faculty and encouraging them to pursue new ideas.”

“Pulling this off is a testament to the college’s culture,” Morgan adds. “Naming that collaborative spirit and developing it further is very powerful.”

For the last two years, the college has recruited roughly half of its new faculty according to their alignment with an identified research theme, rather than to individual academic departments.

upfront

Building a collaborative culture involves retaining and recruiting faculty committed to, and excited by, the concept. That requires strong leader ship that can guide and encourage faculty. The College of Engineering appointed long-time faculty member Elise Morgan to do just that as associate dean for research and faculty development.

Morgan is well equipped for the job. The Maysarah K. Sukkar Professor of Engineering Design and Innovation with a primary appointment in the Mechanical Engineering department, she also holds an appointment in Biomedical Engineering and in Materials Science & Engineering. An accomplished researcher who focuses on the interplay between mechanical forces and biological tissues, especially bone and cartilage, she is a member of the Ameri can Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and director of the Center for Multiscale and Translational Mechanobiol ogy (see p. 22)

Her understanding of the research process, especially research that crosses disciplinary lines, gives her a solid under standing of the challenges faced by faculty, particularly early career faculty.

“My role is not just about encouraging collaboration, but celebrating it, too,” Mor gan says. “Still embedded in academia is the idea that collaborating with others dilutes the mark of your scholarship on the field. New faculty think collaboration is some thing you do after you get tenure. My job is to disabuse them of that outdated notion.

“It’s important that faculty have a balanced portfolio. They still need to

demonstrate leadership in research while also making meaningful, substantive con tributions to collaborative efforts. My job is codifying those expectations and making sure they are communicated clearly and consistently at all levels of the college’s administration.”

Morgan believes that her role has the potential to foster a kind of collaborative, collegial culture that is rare among engi neering schools.

“My hope is that early career faculty will see after a few years that what we have done here really advanced their ability to thrive. They will feel they are in a vibrant environ ment that presents new opportunities. For mid-career and senior faculty, I hope that they will see that we have a college that they want to be part of because it’s such a vibrant, dynamic place that supports their research goals, and they want to stay here. We are aiming to create fertile ground for these ideas and allow this culture to take root.”

DANA J.

Morgan’s understanding of the research process, especially research that crosses disciplinary lines, gives her a solid understanding of the challenges faced by faculty, particularly early career faculty.

Built differently. Built

No matter how smart, no single

can solve any one of the world’s

whether it’s

or

To

PHOTO

BY JORDAN HARTLEY;

PHOTOS BY CRAIG ORSINI

IMAGE COURTESY OF JOSH JAVOR

research

Fewer barriers, distractions and hurdles.

Funding agencies have begun to award grants to multidisci plinary teams pursuing what has lately come to be known as convergent research. But among top engineering schools, Boston University College of Engineering stands out for making convergent research not just a priority but a cornerstone of its strategic plan for the coming decade.

In the pages ahead, you’ll meet groups of complementary experts at ENG who are coming at prob lems from different angles and forging innovative solutions that none of them would have thought of alone.

Learn more about ENG convergent research projects at bu.edu/eng and in future issues of this magazine.

PATRICK L. KENNEDY

“ For some problems, the con vergent approach is not the best way. It’s the only way.”

–CELL-MET Director David Bishop

How Do You Use Genes and Cells to Cure Disease?

IF YOU CAN BUILD IT, YOU CAN UNDERSTAND IT—AND THEN FIX IT. When it comes to parts and processes of the body, that’s the approach taken by researchers at two BU centers—the Biological Design Center (BDC) and the Center for Multiscale and Translational Mechano biology (CMTM). In both cases, teams are composed of researchers hailing from a range of disciplines, including biomedical engineer ing, biology, electrical engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry, physical therapy and medicine.

At the BDC, researchers are figuring out how to regenerate tissue, reprogram bacteria to fight infection and reengineer the body’s immune system to kill tumors.

“The field of biology has been undergoing an exciting transformation, from simply observing and classifying the natural world to engineering biological systems in order to achieve specific goals,” says William F. Warren Distinguished Professor Christopher Chen (BME, MSE), director of the BDC. “The underlying philosophy of the BDC is that by understanding, controlling and reengineering biology to generate new systems, we will revolu tionize how we approach important problems in medicine, energy and the environment.”

At the CMTM, faculty study how physical cues affect biological processes. For example, how do lung cells—in the body, not on a petri dish—react to smoking and exercise? How do heart muscle cells respond to various drugs?

“We’re trying to make connections between processes at the molecular level and bring that all the way up to understanding how to treat disease,” says Maysarah K. Sukkar Professor of Engineering Design and Innovation Elise Mor gan (ME, MSE, BME), director of the CMTM.

“How do we understand what’s keeping us healthy, and what goes wrong that makes us not healthy, and how do we treat those problems?”

“ The field of biology has been undergoing an exciting transformation.”

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY, TISSUE ENGINEERING & MECHANOBIOLOGY

BY DANA J. QUIGLEY

BY DAN AGUIRRE; WONG AND MORGAN

CHEN

Someday, cancer-ridden or asthmatic lung tissue might be replaced with fresh tissue grown using human cells and bioactive materials. But standing in the way of such treatment is our shrouded understanding of how the lung naturally develops its intricate network of eversmaller tubes.

“The lung’s branching fractal structure is very energetically efficient for delivering oxygen,” says BDC cofounder Associate Pro fessor Wilson Wong (BME). “The question is, how do the cells decide to form tubes and then keep branching into tinier tubes?”

Wong has teamed up with BDC Director Christopher Chen and School of Medicine Professor Darrell Kotton to answer that question. Wong is a pioneer in programming cellular circuits. Chen is a key player in the engineering of cellular microenvironments to learn how cells build tissues. Kotton is director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine.

The trio have landed a grant from the foundation of the late Microsoft cofounder Paul G. Allen to study the human lung, with the long-term goal of regenerating tissue to treat pulmonary dis eases such as asthma and lung cancer.

“It’s risky because we have to build a lot of things from scratch,” says Wong. “But that’s what we do in synthetic biology.”

Bones lose and gain cells constantly. “It’s like a road,” says CMTM Director Elise Morgan. “Basically, little pot holes open up and then are filled.” But after our twenties, the potholes aren’t filled as quickly or at all, and we start to lose more bone cells than we gain. This can lead to osteoporosis and bone fractures.

Morgan wants to develop a therapy that fills the potholes for good. Her team is trying to figure out how to deliver mechanical stimuli to bone cells that will prompt them to create more tissue.

Using additive manufacturing, the researchers can control the microenvironment of bone cells in the lab to test hypotheses about bone formation. They can effect an “injury” and see what types of forces applied to the bone will cause it to heal. Ultimately, their work could lead to new types of materials for implants.

Morgan’s colleagues include orthopedic surgery faculty from the Medical Campus as well as Professor Paul Barbone (ME, MSE), an expert in applied mechanics and theoretical acoustics.

“The leadership of the college and the University are really committed to supporting collaborations across the two campuses,” says Morgan.

Left to right: Christopher Chen (BME, MSE), Wilson Wong (BME), Elise Morgan (ME, MSE, BME)

How Do You Turn Data into Solutions?

INTELLIGENT, AUTONOMOUS & SECURE SYSTEMS

FROM HEALTHCARE AND COMMUNICATIONS TO ENERGY AND NATIONAL SECURITY, every sector of society has the chance to reap rewards from the modern explosion of data, if only that data can be harnessed. At the Center for Information and Systems Engineering (CISE), researchers are engineering hardware and software systems to acquire, analyze and act upon information from a range of networked sources. And they’re doing it to advance human intelligence to solve society’s critical problems.

For example, traffic jams—they’re not merely frustrating for drivers. Road conges tion is also responsible for 20 percent of fuel consumption. That’s why the US Department of Energy gave a $3.36 million grant to a team led by Distinguished Professor of Engineer ing Christos Cassandras (ECE, SE), a CISE cofounder, to develop the next generation of technology for connected, automated vehicles.

With colleagues from BU, University of Delaware and University of Michigan, as well as Bosch as a corporate partner, Cassandras developed a plug-in hybrid vehicle that can communicate with other cars and city infrastructure (such as traffic lights) to efficiently calculate a route aimed at conserving gas and cutting down on pollution by more than 20 percent.

Every sector of society has the chance to reap rewards from the modern explosion of data.

Cassandras (seen at left) has worked on a variety of transportation innovations over the years and regularly collaborates with systems engineers and electrical and computer engineers, physicists and statisti cians, and even sociologists and economists, as he seeks societal adoption of his teams’ technologies.

“It’s inevitable in a complex world that the single, one-dimensional expertise, no matter what genius you might have in that particular area, just won’t be able to make the break throughs that are needed,” says Cassandras.

BY DANA J. QUIGLEY

BY DANA J. QUIGLEY; TOP BY LIUHUI ZHAO

How doyou gauge the body’s biochemistry in

Today, you might get your blood pressure checked once a year, at the doctor’s office. Maybe while there, you’ll take a blood test for cholesterol and get the results a few days later.

“Now, imagine a world where all these biomarkers are measured on a continuous time basis, and the information gets uploaded automatically,” says Distinguished Professor of Engineering Yannis Paschalidis (ECE, SE, BME), a CISE cofounder (seen at right). “Imagine the possi bilities in terms of preventing disease and managing chronic disease.”

Paschalidis is working with genomics expert Professor James Galagan (BME, Microbiology) and others to make that world a reality. Inspired by the continuous glucose monitor, the only such device now in use, Galagan has led the development of a wearable progesterone sensor that works by using the protein of a progesterone-sensing microbe.

And that’s just the beginning. Galagan’s team is working to identify other proteins that can be leveraged to sense other health indicators in the human body and in the environment, for example, in coral reefs.

The team includes Professors Mark Grinstaff (BME, Chemistry, MSE, MED) and Catherine Klapperich (BME, MSE, ME) as well as Paschalidis, who is figuring out how the proteins can generate data streams to which he can apply his machine learning tools and identify trends—for example, learning when a patient requires intervention to avoid crossing a dangerous cholesterol threshold.

“It’s remarkable, the diversity of expertise, if you look at our faculty,” says Galagan. “And they’re people who are smart but also generous and interested in working together—that’s BU in a nutshell.”

How Do You Get a Clearer Look Inside the Brain?

IN 2017, BU OPENED THE NEUROPHOTONICS CENTER , the first of its kind in the nation. The center brings together researchers across disci plines—from psychology and biology to health and rehabilitation sciences, and from electri cal and computer engineering to mechanical engineering—to study the workings of the brain using light. Neurophotonics researchers are developing and advancing technology such as laser imaging, multiphoton microscopy, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (see opposite page)

A team led by Assistant Professor Lei Tian (ECE, BME), for example, is attracting funding and scholarly notice with a miniature compu tational microscope for in vivo studies. Some faculty at the center are even using neuro photonics technology to study organs other than the brain—for example, Assistant Professor Hadi Nia (BME, MSE) and colleagues are developing technology that improves upon existing imaging for the lungs, with implications for cancer prevention.

“Convergence, to me, means people working in different fields com ing together on a central problem that they didn’t necessarily recognize they had in common,” says Professor David Boas (BME, ECE), founding director of the Neurophotonics Center. “Because they come from very different fields, they would never naturally speak together.” But thanks to a culture of collaboration fostered by BU and ENG leadership, Boas says, “they find they’re working on a common problem from different approaches, and they realize that working together will benefit all of them.”

Thanks to a culture of collaboration, “they find they are working on a common problem from different approaches.”

Collectively, the Boas team boasts expertise in neuroscience, photonics, data science and signal processing, among other fields.

BY DANA J.

How do you measure the brain activity of a walking, talking human?

Boas isn’t only the director of the Neurophotonics Center; he’s a pio neer of brain imaging who has spent two decades codeveloping a wearable brain imaging system called fNIRS (functional near-infrared spec troscopy). Resembling a swim cap studded with light-emitting sources and detectors, the device tracks blood flow in the brain, thereby learning which neurons are activated during different activities. Getting a brain scan today means a trip to a clinic to lie inside a metal tube, but Boas’ volunteers are testing the fNIRS cap as they walk about campus normally, giving the team data on our neuronal activity during everyday life.

Collectively, the Boas team boasts expertise in neuroscience, photonics, data science and signal processing, among other fields. His collaborators on fNIRS include Research Associate Professor Meryem Yücel (BME); College of Arts & Sciences Professor Alice Cronin-Golomb, who studies aspects of daily function in age-related neurodegenerative disorders; and two Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences faculty—Terry Ellis is director of the Center for Neurorehabilitation and Swathi Kiran is a professor of neurore habilitation.

The input of Sargent College faculty has helped Boas refine fNIRS, making it easier for researchers without extensive training to interpret the results, promising future improvements in the detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenera tive diseases.

Left: Lei Tian (ECE, BME), pioneer in miniature computational microscopy. Right: David Boas (BME, ECE), founding director of the Neurophotonics Center.

How Do You Cure Heart Failure?

WHEN HEART TISSUE IS DAMAGED, IT’S DONE. Unlike a fractured bone, the heart doesn’t repair itself. That’s one reason heart disease kills 659,000 Americans a year, a quarter of all deaths in the US.

Now a BU-led team is working to create a living patch for the heart that would be made out of a patient’s own skin cells, reprogrammed as cardiac muscle cells. This method should prevent the body from rejecting the transplant, as the patch will have originated in the body itself.

Funded by the National Science Foun dation, the Engineering Research Center in Cellular Metamaterials (CELL-MET) has already generated advances, such as new nanoscale 3D print ing methods and a living heart chamber replica (see opposite page)

The group has accom plished this by assembling experts across a range of disciplines, including biol ogy, electrical engineering and nanotechnology.

“For the hardest prob lems, you need a transdis ciplinary, or convergent, approach,” says Professor David Bishop (ECE, Phys ics, MSE, ME, BME), CELL-MET’s director (seen at left). “The tissue engineers alone won’t solve heart disease, nor will the clinicians or imaging scientists alone. But put enough expertise together, and you start to get a 2+2=5 situation.”

Moreover, CELL-MET is training tomor row’s transdisciplinary engineers focused on heart tissue (see p. 37). “We’re teaching them to work and think in a convergent environment,” says Bishop. “The next generation of STEM leaders should be diverse academically—and culturally, too. We’re not going to solve the big problems if only people who look like me are allowed to work on them.”

“ For the hardest pr oblems, you need a transdisciplinary, or convergent, approach.”

JACKIE RICCIARDI

MATERIALS BY DESIGN

BY JACKIE RICCIARDI

Combining lab-grown human heart tissue with nanoengineered parts, a team at CELL-MET has developed a miniature replica of a heart chamber. Precision-enabled Unidirectional Microfluidic Pump (miniPUMP) promises a closer look at the workings of the heart and the impact of cardiac diseases.

Unlike an electrified cadaver heart, miniPUMP beats on its own, replicating the activity of a live heart ventricle, all in a package measuring just three square centimeters.

In the future, miniPUMP might be used to test drug candidates more efficiently and accurately than is done today with animal cells. That means potential savings of years and millions of dollars en route to cures for all manner of diseases.

Led by William F. Warren Distinguished Professor of Biomedi cal Engineering Christopher Chen (BME, MSE) and Professor Alice White (ME, MSE, BME, Physics), the team published their findings in Science Advances

“Chris never would have been able to do the microfluidics, and Alice never would have been able to do the tissue engineering,” says CELL-MET director David Bishop, “but working together, they were able to come up with an extraordinary piece of research.”

Reporting contributed by Andrew Thurston

How do you safely get a close-up look at the human heart?

That means potential savings of years and millions of dollars en route to cures for all manner of diseases.

Left to right: Christopher Chen (BME, MSE), Alice White (ME, MSE, BME, Physics) and postdoctoral researcher Christos Michas (ENG’21) collaborated on the miniPUMP.

How Do You Make Practical Use of Light to Solve Problems?

PHOTONICS & OPTICAL SYSTEMS

FROM SPEEDING UP THE FLOW OF INFORMATION THROUGH FIBER OPTIC CABLES to studying the modulation of brain circuits, the many practical uses of light are on display at BU’s Photonics Center.

“You can think of it as an umbrella for research where light plays a pivotal role,” says Professor Tom Bifano (ME, MSE, BME, ECE), the center’s director. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that your research is on making an optical system or understanding photonics better—it might be about treating cancer, and that cancer research requires you to use a light-based approach.”

The center has been a natural home for convergent research since it opened in 1996, says Bifano.

Most of its 60 faculty are affiliated with multiple ENG departments and divisions. (Bifano, who is a professor of mechanical engineering, materials science and engineer ing, biomedical engineering, and electrical and computer engineering, is not at all atypical for the center.) Many come from physics, chemistry or other departments of the College of Arts & Sciences, or from the School of Medicine. Along with more than 100 grad students and postdocs, the faculty work on research and technology develop ment encompassing lasers, nonlinear optics, photonic materials and devices and more. A typical Photonics project “requires sophisti cated advances in two or more areas,” Bifano says, “so an expert in one area or the other is not sufficient to make the progress that’s needed.”

In all Photonics projects, Bifano adds, researchers are solving real-life problems.

“We’re teaching our students to function not only in a university but also in the larger world,” he says. “That’s really at the heart of the Socie tal Engineer.”

A typical Photonics project “requires sophisticated advances in two or more areas.”

BY DANA J. QUIGLEY

If emergency techs could scan a stroke sufferer’s brain on the spot, rather than transporting them to the hospital, it would be a boon for healthcare, says Professor Stephan Anderson (MED, ME), a radiologist, imaging expert and member of the Photonics Center.

That vision for a better magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner might be realized with ultra-low-field MRI, meaning it would use a much smaller magnet than is typical in hospital-based machines today. So far, though, attempts at pro ducing ultra-low-field MRI have been hamstrung by the low field’s low signal-to-noise ratio.

Enter Photonics Center faculty member Distinguished Professor of Engineering Xin Zhang (ME, ECE, BME, MSE). She has invented a metamaterial—a material engineered to have properties not found in nature—that interacts with electromagnetic fields to strengthen the signal and reduce the noise in an imaging system, improving the ratio by up to a factor of 10.

“MRI uses the radio frequency band of the electromagnetic spectrum, and light uses the optical band—higher frequency, lower wavelength—of that same spectrum,” says Tom Bifano, Photon ics Center director, in explaining MRI’s place within light-based research. “The physics of both are the same.”

So, Zhang can boost the signal to be gained from a weaker mag net. But there’s still a lot of noise to cut through. That’s where Dis tinguished Professor of Engineering Yannis Paschalidis (ECE, SE, BME) comes in. Paschalidis is an expert in using machine learning and data science techniques to extract valuable signal from what appears to be noise.

This is why the three professors have received a $1.5 million award from the BU Kilachand Fund for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering to develop low-field MRI. If successful, the team’s technology will be not only cheaper but also safer, and portable. That also means their scanners could become widely available in developing countries, where MRI is rare today.

MILLION IN GRANTS LAST YEAR FOR THE PHOTONICS CENTER

Yannis Paschalidis (top) brings his data expertise to bolster an invention of metamaterials pioneer Xin Zhang (bottom).

How doyou make a better MRI— and bring it to remote villages?

How Do You Sustainably Meet the World’s Energy Needs?

ENERGY PRODUCTION IS THE BIGGEST SOURCE OF GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS , and it will take the full range of engineers and other experts to transform the world’s power grid, replacing our existing fossil fuel infrastructure with low- and no-carbon alternatives. That’s why the Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS) includes a host of faculty from ENG and from BU’s School of Public Health, College of Arts & Sciences, Questrom School of Business and School of Law and collaborates with faculty from other centers such as the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering.

As part of a collaboration with Chemistry Professor Aaron Beeler, IGS faculty associate director Associate Professor Emily Ryan (ME, MSE) worked closely with two ENG associate professors, Sahar Sharifzadeh (ECE, MSE) and Brian Kulis (ECE, SE), on an effort to build more efficient, rechargeable lithium metal batteries for storing renewable energy. They focused on understanding (and eventually preventing) the formation of defects known as dendrites that accumulate at battery interfaces.

“Professor Sharifzadeh does electronic structure calculations, I do con tinuum-level interfacial modeling in batteries, and Professor Kulis does machine learning,” says Ryan. “By bringing us all together to integrate those areas, we were able to work to address the problem.”

Moreover, Ryan says, IGS researchers are thinking about how to work with policymakers to scale up technological solutions to climate change on a global scale.

“That’s the systems problem,” she says. “Energy just lends itself to working with lots of different expertise.”

“ Energy just lends itself to working with lots of different expertise.”

ENERGY, SUSTAINABILITY & CLIMATE

BY DANA J. QUIGLEY

How doyou solve the “duck curve” problem?

For years, IGS-affiliated faculty Pro fessor Soumendra Basu and Associate Professor Srikanth Gopalan have collaborated with Professor Uday Pal, Associate Professor Emily Ryan and other researchers on lengthening the lifetimes of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), which convert the chemical energy in fossil fuels into electrical energy while emitting half the carbon of gas turbines and almost none of the air pollutants.

All are faculty in the Mechanical Engineering department and Materials Science and Engineering division, but they come from different backgrounds and bring different areas of exper tise—including steel manufacturing, electrochemistry, materials synthesis, coatings, thermodynamics and transmission electron microscopy—and collaborate with other universities and industry.

Recently, they have been working on reversible solid oxide cells, which can operate as SOFCs, turning fuel and oxygen into electricity—but can then be run in reverse as electrolyzers, turning electricity and water vapor into storable hydrogen. These revers ible cells might solve the “duck curve” problem—the mismatch in timing between the natural daytime production of solar power and the grid’s net energy deficit, which is more intense after dark. The BU team is finding strong potential in rare-earth nickelates as materials for the air electrodes in these cells.

“If you just looked at the microstructure of these materials, which is my area, or if you just looked at the performance of the air electrode, which is Srikanth’s area, your understanding would be incomplete,” says Basu. “It needs these very cohesive efforts with people having different expertise to be able to understand the big picture.”

Reporting contributed by Jessica Colarossi and Gina Mantica

Emily Ryan (top), Soumendra Basu (bottom), and colleagues collaborate on improving solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), with an eye toward a more efficient energy grid.

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY TO BU AND PARTNERS FOR SOFC STUDY

Cross-Disciplinary Collaborations Debut in Capstone Course

Anew slate of interdisciplinary endeavors joined the roster of ENG’s capstone Senior Design Projects this year, resulting in technology solutions for problems in lobstering, carpentry, molecule imaging, kidney health and more.

A yearlong endeavor that caps off the ENG undergrad experience, the Senior Design Project is a hands-on team effort. Integrating and applying the knowledge they’ve gained over four years at BU, students design and prototype products or devices meant to solve real-world problems, often for real-life clients.

Teams composed of different majors are not unheard of, but 2022 was the first year intentionally interdisciplinary projects were offered to all students. Six teams took up the challenge, and the results were promising.

PUCKFish, for example, earned the award for “Best Electrical & Computer Engineering Project,” even though three of the team’s five members were ME majors. (Each team was assigned to one of the three departments in order to receive consistent faculty guidance.)

The device aims to bring the lobster industry into the 21st century. By collecting data on six key metrics of marine life, the PUCKFish system would enable fishermen to place traps more efficiently— in areas of the sea floor that are most likely to hide lobsters—thereby meeting regulatory standards and keeping whales safe from fishing gear.

The clients for the device are two ENG alumni, Andy Whitman and Anthony Byrne (both ENG’19), cofounders of the marine start-up Fathom Fishing. Most

of the PUCKFish team members had previously worked alongside Whitman and Byrne in the BU Rocket Propulsion Group.

“Andy was from a lobster fishing town and saw a need for data-driven trap placement,” says team member Victoria Thomas (ENG’22). “As we had had experience working on aerospace projects, we were easily able to transfer over to marine projects. These two mediums are surprisingly similar, as they are both harsh environments with high or low pressure on a device.”

Another joint ME-ECE project, NanoPack, was designed for NanoView Biosciences. It’s a device that uses a robotic arm and a tweezer actuator to place silicon chips in a packing container, speeding up the production of NanoView’s signature molecule imaging device.

NanoPack was accepted to the 2022 Capstone Design conference in June at the University of Texas at Dallas.

One team composed of BME and ECE students crafted a digital biopsy device that uses an image processing algorithm to find key indicators of kidney disease.

“More than just new skills, we were exposed to a new way of thinking about and approaching problems through these interactions,” says Aksel Laudon (ENG’22) about his experience. “We also

had to better master our own expertise in BME and biology concepts in order to convey them in simple terms to someone from another field. The interdisciplinary characteristic improved the development of our teamwork and communication skills.”

— PATRICK L. KENNEDY

From left, William Aracri, Peter Ha, Ammar Hussain, Alex Necakov and Victoria Thomas (all ENG’22) present their senior capstone project, PUCKFish.

A PUCKFish team member demonstrates the marine data collection system.

Biotech Developing “Tissue Therapeutics” to Treat Diseased Organs Launches from BU and MIT Labs

Satellite Bio, a start-up cofounded by Christopher Chen (BME, MSE), launched in April after securing $110 million in venture funding.

The company promises to pioneer “the next frontier of regenerative medicine” by developing tissue implants that can help treat or replace diseased organs. Satellite Bio uses technology codeveloped by Chen, a BU William F. Warren Distinguished Professor, and Sangeeta Bhatia of MIT.

The company says its novel technology, which it calls “tissue therapeutics,” would allow scientists to program cells and aggregate them “into novel, implantable therapies, called ‘satellites,’ which can be introduced to patients to repair, restore, or even replace dysfunctional or diseased tissue or organs.” The satellites can either act like a supercharged Band-Aid, helping to speed rehabilitation, or more like a power generator, taking on some of an organ’s typical function to get the body running closer to its optimal level.

To start, Satellite Bio will focus on liver disease, which can be especially hard to treat—a transplant may be the only option for those with liver failure. “It’s a space where the clinical need is high and our technology could make an impact,” says Chen. He hopes the company can start clinical trials within a few years and that the work will pave the way for a new category

of tissue repair medicines that can treat diseases and conditions of organ failure beyond the liver.

Chen’s expertise is in tissue microfabrication, using engineering to figure out how cells form tissues, and then shaping that process. His work in vascular bioengineering—or the form and function of blood vessels—provides a foundation for Satellite Bio’s technology: “How do we get a tissue vascularized sufficiently and quickly enough that it will engraft and thrive?”

MIT’s Bhatia brings decades of experience in liver and tissue engineering. She and Chen have known each other since graduate school and have remained collaborators, producing a number of joint research papers. Tissue therapeutics, Chen says, is “really a combination of the two pillars—tissue and vascular engineering— that we brought together to try to solve a problem.”

Chen says he’ll provide Satellite Bio with “high-level scientific feedback and guidance,” while the company’s work will inform his teaching and research.

“They can help us learn what the pain points are in taking a technology like this

to the clinic, and that gets my team more visibility on the problems we need to do more research on,” says Chen, who heads BU’s Biological Design Center and is deputy director of the NSF Engineering Research Center in Cellular Metamaterials (CELLMET) at BU. “From an educational perspective, it impacts how I teach and think about what students need to learn—the scientific problems that need to be solved, understanding the many parts of a company that need to come together to make something work.”

One of Chen’s former students, Divya Israni (ENG’21), is already working for Satellite Bio, helping push the technology toward clinical trials.

“Satellite Bio has launched with an audacious mission to restore hope to patients and families suffering from severe, life-threatening conditions,” says Israni.

— ANDREW THURSTON

Satellite Bio calls its technology “tissue therapeutics” and says it would allow scientists to program cells and aggregate them “into novel, implantable therapies, called ‘satellites,’” which could be used to repair diseased tissue or organs.

Christopher Chen (BME, MSE)

Distinguished Alum Delivers

DeLisi Lecture

On April 27, Zhiping Weng (ENG’97) shared insights from the first and largest international effort to characterize the functional elements of the human genome as she delivered the Charles DeLisi Distinguished Lecture. The first alum to receive the Charles DeLisi Award, Weng spoke to an audience of nearly 100 members of the BU community in the Metcalf Trustee Ballroom.

The annual DeLisi award recognizes researchers with extraordinary records of well-cited scholarship, senior leaders in industry and inventors of transformative technologies. Weng spent 14 years in ENG’s BME department as a doctoral student and professor before joining UMass Medical School as founding director of its bioinformatics and integrative biology program.

It was at BU that Weng began her ongoing role as a principal investigator in the ENCODE consortium. Short for Encyclopedia of DNA Elements, ENCODE is a global effort to understand how the human genome works. From the project’s voluminous data sets, Weng’s team has developed a registry of more than a million human and mouse candidate cis-regulatory elements.

“If we can understand these regulatory elements in a spatial and temporal manner, we can understand what makes us different and what makes some of us susceptible to different diseases, and hopefully contribute to the correction of these problems,” said Weng, who is also the Li Weibo Chair of Biomedical Research and professor of biochemistry and molecular pharmacology at UMass Medical School.

Using computational biology, Weng and colleagues identified 926,535 regulatory elements for humans and 339,815 for mice, data they’ve made available to the scientific community. This online database will allow other researchers to explore the connections among the regulatory elements, genes and various diseases. For example, Weng said, her team identified regulatory

elements that may be linked with the gene variants associated with lupus, schizophrenia and breast cancer.

“None of this would be possible if Charles hadn’t mapped the human genome,” said Weng, referring to the lecture’s namesake, Dean Emeritus and Metcalf Professor of Science and Engineering Charles DeLisi (BME), pioneer of the Human Genome Proj ect. “The ENCODE Project followed in the footsteps of the Human Genome Project,” said Weng, who worked in DeLisi’s BU Lab as a doctoral student.

As dean of the BU College of Engineering from 1990 to 2000, DeLisi recruited leading researchers in biomedical, manufacturing, aerospace and mechanical engineering, photonics and other engineering fields,

establishing a research infrastructure that ultimately propelled the college into the top ranks of engineering graduate programs. In 1999 he founded, and chaired for more than a decade, BU’s Bioinformatics Program, the first such program in the nation.

Before Weng’s presentation, Maysarah K. Sukkar Professor of Engineering Design and Innovation Elise Morgan (ME, MSE, BME), associate dean for research and faculty development, presented Roberto Tron and Gianluca Stringhini—both assistant professors of ECE—with the Early Career Research Excellence Award, which celebrates the significant, recent, high-impact research achievements of exemplary tenure-track faculty who are within 10 years of receiving their PhD.

Zhiping Weng (ENG’97)

Growing Tissue and Engineers

CELL-MET SUMMER PROGRAMS BROADEN THE PIPELINE OF RESEARCH ENGINEERS

“Graduate school was never a thought,” says Nicole Bacca. As a teenager applying to Florida International University (FIU), Bacca picked engineering as a major because she couldn’t imagine following four years of college with additional years of law or medical school.

“I thought engineering meant you graduated after four years, got a good salary, and were all set,” says Bacca, who was born in Colombia and raised in Florida. “I had always associated it with industry—I didn’t know there was this whole research component of engineering, that people got their PhD in it.”

But then, after Bacca had enrolled at FIU, she heard about the NSF Engineering Research Center in Cellular Metamaterials (CELL-MET), headquartered at BU. Launched in 2017 with funding from the NSF, CELL-MET is developing a kind of living bandage for the heart.

That mission spoke to Bacca, whose mother was dealing with cardiac issues at the time. So, Bacca took part in a CELLMET summer program designed to identify

and mentor undergraduates and expose them to cutting-edge engineering research. The goal is to fill the engineering workforce pipeline by encouraging engineering undergraduates to pursue graduate school or positions in industry.

Bacca helped Professor Alice White (ME, MSE, BME, Physics) design, 3D-print and test scaffolding used to grow cells. Today, Bacca is a PhD student in ME at ENG. “If I had not done that first research experience, I would not have pursued grad school,” she says.

Bacca is not alone. Dozens of students from all over the country have taken part in summer research experiences in CELLMET labs and been inspired to pursue engineering research in academia.

Student participants hail from a range

of minority-serving institutions, community colleges and universities that often lack undergraduate research opportunities or graduate programs in engineering. They receive housing, a stipend and travel expenses, and spend 10 weeks learning and applying nanofabrication techniques and conducting research in state-of-the-art facilities. They also attend technical and professional development seminars and take part in social outings.

Left to right: Helen Fawcett, CELL-MET student engagement director; Amanda Dillingham, East Boston High School science director; David Bishop, CELLMET director.

For most of the students, this is their first time in a lab. “It’s a very newbie-friendly way to get into tissue engineering,” says Francisco Sanchez, who, as an undergrad at the University of Puerto Rico–Mayaguez, spent two summers in CELL-MET labs and is today a PhD student in the lab of Professor Thomas Bifano (ME, MSE, BME, ECE), director of the Photonics Center. “Most of the students who go into CELL-MET [summer programs] haven’t had research experience, and they’re usually firstgeneration college students.”

Another component of CELL-MET’s workforce development effort is a program for high school science teachers, who engage in cutting-edge research and bring that experience back to the classroom.

Amanda Dillingham, science director at East Boston High School, has come to BU for several research experiences over the years. Among other things, she has researched vascular density and grown capillaries in the lab of Professor Christopher Chen (BME, MSE), deputy director of CELL-MET.

“It totally transformed my teaching,” says Dillingham. “I rewrote an entire curriculum because of it.”

— PATRICK L. KENNEDY

Mechanical engineering PhD students Nicole Bacca (left) and Francisco Sanchez.

Trio Tapped to Join AIMBE College of Fellows

Professor James Galagan (BME, Microbiology), Associate Professor Xue Han (BME) and Professor Dimitrije Stamenovic (BME, MSE) have been elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

“Being elected as an AIMBE Fellow is one of the highest honors in our profession, reserved for the top two percent of practitioners in industry and academics,” says Professor and BME Chair John White. “Dimitrije, James and Xue are richly deserving of this honor. All three are highly respected for their research and leadership in our community.”

Galagan was selected for advances in computational biology to understand the molecular basis of infectious diseases and in novel biosensors for physiological monitoring. Galagan leads an interdisciplinary lab at the intersection of genomics,

Xin Zhang a Guggenheim Fellow

Professor Xin Zhang (ME, ECE, BME, MSE) has been awarded a highly prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in recognition of her exceptional record of research in the fundamental and applied aspects of microelectromechanical systems and metamaterials.

Zhang was one of 180 scholars and artists to receive the honor out of a pool of nearly 2,500 applicants. The fellowships, awarded each spring by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, include among past winners Nobel laureates, Fields Medal winners and other leading lights across academic and artistic disciplines.

Zhang and her research group, the Laboratory for Microsystems Technology, seek to understand and exploit interesting characteristics of physics, materials, mechanics and manufacturing technologies with forward-looking engineering efforts and practical applications ranging from energy to healthcare to homeland security.

Recent technologies to emerge from Zhang’s lab include a new metamaterial that can be shaped to block 94 percent of sound waves from a source of noise without blocking air flow, and a helical resonator array that can improve MRI image quality, potentially in less time and at lower cost.

Zhang has published more than 200 papers in interdisciplinary journals and is a fellow of AIMBE (see above), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

molecular biology, computational biology, electrical engineering and technology development.

A pioneer in optogenetics, Han was selected for inventing and applying high-impact molecular technologies to optically probe brain dynamics underlying behavior and pathology. Using pulses of light to control and observe the behavior of different neurons, she has discovered new types of brain signals. Her ultimate goal is to design the next generation of neuromodulation therapies for brain disorders.

Stamenovic was selected for his outstanding contributions to the understanding of fundamental multiscale structure-function relations in the field of biomechanics of tissues and cells. He helped to design and develop a light pneumatic knee brace capable of ameliorating symptoms of knee osteoarthritis.

“From a departmental and college perspective, this is the second year in a row that three of our faculty have received this honor, bringing our total to 38 AIMBE Fellows,” says White. “This is an astounding number, indicative of the high regard in which our faculty are held by our peers.”

TOP, HAN BY CIARA CROCKER; GALAGAN BY MELISSA OSTROW; BOTTOM, ZHANG BY DANA J. QUIGLEY

Dimitrije Stamenovic (BME, MSE)

James Galagan (BME, Microbiology)

Xue Han (BME)

Xin Zhang (ME, ECE, BME, MSE)

BU Bestows Top Honor on Grinstaff

Professor Mark Grinstaff (BME, Chemistry, MSE, MED) has been appointed a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor—the highest recognition the University bestows on faculty.

The funds that come with the professorship “will allow me to do more of what I’m doing and to take greater risks in the research,” says Grinstaff. “To work on projects that are more challenging, more interdisciplinary. It kind of reinforces the way I think about research and the way I work with my students.”

Besides being a professor of translational research, biomedical engineering, chemistry, materials science and engineering, and medicine, Grinstaff is director of the NIH T32 Program in Biomaterials and director of the Nanotechnology Innovation Center at Boston University.

Schmidt Award Will Empower Khalil to Pursue Cross-Disciplinary Research

BY DANA J. QUIGLEY

BY CYDNEY SCOTT; BOTTOM,

Associate Professor Ahmad “Mo” Khalil (BME) has earned the Schmidt Science Polymath Award, recognizing him as a bold researcher and fueling the possibility of advances toward the engineering of new multicellular systems, including plants, that can help humanity address devastating diseases and grapple with climate change.

Granting Khalil and his lab $500,000 a year for five years, the polymath award was conferred on him by the Schmidt Family Foundation, which was started by former

Grinstaff’s research activities encompass the synthesis of new macromolecules and biomaterials, self-assembly chemistry, imaging contrast agents, drug delivery and wound repair. His eponymous research group conducts interdisciplinary research in the areas of biological and macromolecular chemistry.

Early in the pandemic, Grinstaff developed a diagnostic device for the detection of COVID-19; the start-up he founded to produce the device was recently acquired by Sorrento Therapeutics.

Grinstaff is a fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), the winner of the 2018 Clemson Award for Applied Research from the Society of Biomaterials, and recipient of the 2015 Charles DeLisi Award, among other honors, and the author or coauthor of more than 225 peerreviewed manuscripts. He earned his BA at Occidental College and his PhD at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. — JOEL BROWN

Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy Schmidt.

“Mechanisms that provide unrestricted funding to pursue entirely new research directions, especially in spaces that fall across disciplines, are rare,” says Khalil, a pioneer of synthetic biology. “The idea behind this award is to encourage newly tenured professors to work in those areas and empower them to make shifts in their research and take on new and interesting problems.”

Khalil says that one possible path he may take is developing efficient and effective methods for engineering plants, which could accelerate the sustainable production of crops with qualities such as increased yields, pathogen resistance and drought tolerance.

The Schmidt award is one of a slew that Khalil has won lately, including $1 million from the W.M. Keck Foundation for a cell-signaling study that might lead to heart and pain therapies with fewer side effects.

Ahmad “Mo” Khalil (BME)

Mark Grinstaff (BME, Chemistry, MSE, MED)

Professors of Engineering

Four Named Term Distinguished Professors of Engineering

Four College of Engineering faculty who are forging new paths in neurosci ence, systems engineering, photonics and materials science have been named Term Distinguished Professors of Engineering.

“These awards recognize the impact of these extraordinary faculty,” says Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen. “The professorships honor not just their visionary research accomplishments, but also their outstanding teaching and service to the college and the profession. In addition, they will receive seed funds to continue to pursue risky, but potentially high-impact, ideas in their research.”

The 2022 Term Distinguished Professors of Engineering:

David Boas (BME, ECE)

Boas is the director of the BU Neurophotonics Center, the founding president of the Society for Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy and founding editor-in-chief of the journal Neurophotonics. Boas earned the Britton Chance Award in Biomedical Optics in 2016 for developing several novel, high-impact biomedical optical technologies in neuroscience. His upwards of 300 peer-reviewed journal publications have been cited nearly 47,000 times. He is a fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

Yannis Paschalidis (ECE, SE, BME) Paschalidis cofounded the Center for Information and Systems Engineering and directs the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering. His research interests are in systems and control, networking, data science, machine learning and AI, opti-

mization, applied probability, operations research, computational biology, medical informatics and bioinformatics. His recent work has found applications in networks, protein folding, cybersecurity, robotics, the smart grid and healthcare. Paschalidis is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the founding editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems and a past Charles DeLisi Distinguished Scholar.

Siddharth Ramachandran (ECE, MSE)

Ramachandran studies the fundamental properties and applications of spatially structured light beams. He holds 43 patents and has authored nearly 380 studies in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. Ramachandran is a fellow of the IEEE, the OSA, and the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, and has received the prestigious Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship and the IEEE Distinguished Lecturer Award. He is a past Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the UK Royal Academy of Engineering.

Xin Zhang (ME, ECE, BME, MSE)

Zhang leads the BU Laboratory for Microsystems Technology, focusing on metamaterials and microelectromechanical systems. Her recent work has enabled highly efficient, air-permeable sound silencing devices. She has published approximately 180 papers, garnering 14,000 citations.

Zhang is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Inventors, AIMBE, IEEE, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Physical Society and OSA. She is a past Charles DeLisi Distinguished Scholar and was BU’s Innovator of the Year in 2018.

Xin Zhang (ME, ECE, BME, MSE)

Siddharth Ramachandran (ECE, MSE)

Yannis Paschalidis (ECE, SE, BME)

David Boas (BME, ECE)

THE MAGAZINE OF

John Abele

Founder & Director, Boston Scientific

Jill Albertelli ’91

President, Military Engines Pratt & Whitney

Omar Ali ’96

Director of Operations, Petra Engineering Industries Co.

Adel Al-Saleh ’87

CEO, T-Systems Board Member, Deutsche Telekom

Alan Auerbach ‘91

Founder, President, CEO Puma Biotechnology Inc.

Tye Brady ’90

Chief Technologist, Amazon Robotics

Deborah Caplan ’90

Executive VP, Human Resources & Corporate Services, NextEra Energy

Brian Dunkin ’85

Chief Medical Officer, Boston Scientific Endoscopy Global

*Vanessa Feliberti ’93

Corporate VP, M365 Services Platform Engineering, Microsoft

Joseph Frassica, MED’88

Chief Medical Officer and Head of Research, the Americas, Philips Healthcare

Ron Garriques ’86

CEO and Chairman, Gee Holdings LLC

west coast alumni leadership council

Claudia Arango Dunsby ’92

Vice President, Operations, Hybridge IT

Bettina Briz-Himes ’86

Senior Director, Strategic Alliances, GoPro Inc.

Chris Brousseau ’91

Partner, IBM Cognitive Process Services

Gregory Cordrey ’88

Partner, Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, LLP

Richard Fuller, PhD ‘88

Senior Principal Engineer-Systems, Semtech Corporation

Tim Gardner ’00

Founder/CEO, Riffyn Inc.

Roger Hajjar ‘88 CTO, Prysm, Inc.

Mark Hilderbrand ’87

Managing Director, Housatonic Partners

Mikhail Gurevich ‘07, Questrom‘12

Managing Partner, Gee Partnership Holdings LLC

Joseph Healey ’88

Senior Managing Director, HealthCor Management LP

William Huyett

CFO, Cyclerion

Dean Kamen, Hon.’06

President & Founder, DEKA Research & Development Corp.

Anand Krishnamurthy ’92,’96

President and CEO, Affirmed Networks Ezra Kucharz ’90

Chief Business Officer, DraftKings Inc.

Abhijit Kulkarni ’93,’97

COO, Cellino Biotech Inc.

Antoinette Leatherberry ’85

Principal (Retired), Deloitte Consulting Trustee, Boston University

Peter Levine ‘83

General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz Nick Lippis ’84,’89

President, Lippis Enterprises Inc.

Andy Marsh ’83

Chief Operating Officer, Dynavac Kathleen McLaughlin ’87

Chief Sustainability Officer, Walmart Inc.

President, Walmart Foundation

Manuel Mendez ’91

CEO, Quotient Limited

*Rao Mulpuri ’92,’96

CEO, View Inc.

Girish Navani ’91

Co-Founder and CEO, eClinicalWorks

*Anton Papp ’90

Vice President & Head of Corporate Development, Ping Identity

Liam Quinn ’90

Senior Vice President, Senior Fellow Dell Technologies

*Sharad Rastogi ’91

Chief Product Officer, JLL Kimberly Samaha ’89 CEO, Born Global LLC

*George M. Savage, MD ’81

Former Chief Medical Officer & Co-Founder, Proteus Digital Health Inc.

Binoy K. Singh, MD ’89

Associate Chief of Cardiology, Northwell Health Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan ’00

Senior Director, Product, LinkedIn Former CEO & Founder, Drawbridge

John Tegan ’88

President, CEO, Communication Technology Services

Francis Troise ’87 Co-CEO, Pico Quantitative William Weiss ’83,’97

Vice President of Manufacturing and Logistics, General Dynamics Mission Systems

STAY CONNECTED TO THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Join the

Post, tag, tweet, ask questions, reconnect with alumni and learn about

opportunities, job fairs, seminars and other news and events. facebook.com/ BUCollegeofENG

D

Kenneth R. Lutchen dean

Solomon R. Eisenberg

associate dean for academic programs

Elise Morgan

dean for research & faculty development

Ajay Joshi

associate dean for educational initiatives

Kent Hughes ’79

Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, Verizon

Michele Iacovone ’89

Vice President, Chief Architect, Intuit Tyler Kohn ’98

Co-Founder & CTO, Continual Yitao Liao ’10,’11

Former Chief Technology Officer, RayVio Corp.

Martin Lynch ’82

Chief Operating Officer, FreeWire Daniel Maneval ’82

Chief Science Officer, January Therapeutics

Beatriz Mendez-Lora ’88

President, M-P Consultants Xu Ning ’08,’09

Engineering Manager, Uber, Inc.

Richard Lally

associate dean for finance & administration

Coralie

Douglas

ENGINEER

Cummington

Sandip “Sonny” Patidar, MD ‘90

Founder and Managing Partner, Titanium Capital Partners

Anthony “Tony” Pecore ’95

Vice President, Portfolio Manager, Franklin Templeton Investments

Sanjay Prasad ’86,’87

Principal, Prasad IP, PC John Scaramuzzo ’87

Chief Operating Officer, Nyriad Limited Greg Seiden ’80

Former Vice President, Oracle Corporation Dylan Steeg ’95

Vice President of Business Development, Aible Francis “Frank” Tiernan ’70

Former President, Anritsu Company Joseph Winograd ‘95,‘97 CTO, Verance Corporation

Boston University Creative Services design & production

Michael Seele editor

Patrick L. Kennedy managing editor

Joel Brown, Jessica Colarossi, Gina Mantica, Andrew Thurston contributing writers

Gabriella McNevin-Melendez associate director for marketing & communications

College

youtube.com/ BUCollegeofENG

dean’s leadership advisory board

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Emeritus members include Roger Dorf (‘70), Richard Reidy (Questrom‘82), and Venkatesh Narayanamurti

College of Engineering

Boston University College of Engineering